


Sticky Notes

by espioc



Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One)
Genre: Flirting, Fluff, M/M, Pining, Starscream is lonely, finding the zest in life, implied depression, sticky notes, wheeljack is nervouse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-17
Updated: 2020-10-17
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:26:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27070429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/espioc/pseuds/espioc
Summary: Starscream starts finding sticky notes around his office. Each one offers something new.
Relationships: Starscream/Wheeljack (Transformers)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 84





	Sticky Notes

Starscream's life had become somewhat dull since becoming ruler of Cybertron.

Sure, he has to deal with political and social unrest, a crumbling city, trying to get the colonies sorted out, make nice with the NAILS, the untamed wilds of Cybertron and a million other things, but all of that was paperwork.

Starscream's life as leader consisted of stacks of datapads and a hundred signatures on a hundred different proposals. Meetings with the same people on the same day every week. Meetings that never really did much or sorted anything out. All they ever seemed to achieve was bringing more issues to the table.

Of course, Starscream liked being ruler. The title alone was enough for him. But this lifestyle, this peacetime. It left little for him.

Not that much had ever made him truly happy, but now it seemed like nothing did it.

Life had lost all of its zest.

Starscream was sitting at his desk doing work. The same thing he did everyday for hours on end. He sighed, setting one datapad aside and grabbing the next. When he pulled the pad from the pile, a bright pink piece of organic paper popped off of the datapad underneath and landed on the desk. Starscream raised one brow. He gathered the scrap of paper and read what it said.

_Wanna hear a joke?_

_\- W_

Starscream recognized the surprisingly good handwriting as his resident scientist. He momentarily wondered how Wheeljack had managed to sneak into his office and leave this note, but that was a question for another day. Starscream rose from his desk and decided that this joke situation required his immediate attention.

He made his way down, all the way to the labs below ground level, and waltzed right into Wheeljack’s workspace.

Wheeljack glanced over his shoulder. “Ah, Starscream,” he said. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

Starscream stifled his smirk and held out the pink sticky note. “You left something on my desk.”

Wheeljack turned all the way around and lifted the goggles off his eyes. “Ah, yeah, my note. You finally got it.”

Starscream’s wing twitched. “Finally?”

Wheeljack turned back to his work, replacing the goggles on his face. “I left that in your office weeks ago.”

Starscream’s mood suddenly sank, his wings sinking with it. “Oh.”

Wheeljack soldered a wire onto a board. “Hey, since you’re here, have I told you about this book I’ve been readin’ about anti-gravity?”

Starscream’s brow dipped. “No, you haven’t.”

“Really? I haven’t been able to put it down.” Wheeljack used his finger and the soldering gun to bang on the desk. “Ba bum, ching.”

Starscream’s wing twitched. He tilted his head.

Wheeljack turned back around. “You came here for a joke, right?”

Starscream’s wings fluttered, his face became warm. “Ah,” he tucked the note away in his subspace and chuckled. “Yes, that was a good one.”

“I can be funny when I want to be.”

Starscream stepped up to the work bench and took a good look at whatever Wheeljack was making.

“Is that one of mine?” Starscream asked.

“Nope. Personal project.”

“Hm. Funny, I thought I gave you this lab for government work.”

“It’s either this or I blow up my house.” Wheeljack shrugged. “I figured this would be better.”

“Fair enough.” Starscream turned on a heel. “Well, I best get back to work. Thanks for the joke.”

“Anytime.”

Starscream headed back to his office. As soon as he sat back at his desk he wished he’d stayed in the lab just a little bit longer and listened to another joke.

* * *

Starscream chewed on the end of his pen until it sputtered out and died. He grabbed another from the desk and went on to do the same thing twice over. After a third time he slapped the broken pen down and flicked it off the table. He laid his head down on his arms and stared at the datapad below his face.

Starscream took a deep vent and sat up, wiggling his wings and bending backwards to get the knot out of his spine. He huffed, going slack. There was plenty of work left to be done but he had been sitting at that desk for three hours and it was time for a cube. He wandered over to the energon dispenser and made himself a cube. Before he could take a sip, someone knocked on his door.

“Come in!” He called.

He waited, but no one ever came. Starscream huffed. He took a quick sip of his cube and marched towards the door.

“I said come--” he opened the door, but no one was there. Starscream pursed his lip. He peeked his head out and looked around, but no one was in the hallway. “Hm. Stupid Rattrap.” He was about to close the door when something caught his eye.

There was a bright green sticky note on the door. Starscream grabbed it and read what it said.

_Wanna hear a fun fact?_

_\- W_

Starscream tried to resist, but he smirked. He held the note in his hand the entire way down to the lab. Wheeljack was working at a different workbench than he was last time. He twisted on a stool as he wrote down equations and hypotheses.

Starscream stood behind him and held out the note. “I’m here for my fun fact.”

Wheeljack twisted around. “That was fast. I thought it might take another week.”

Starscream put his hands on his hips. “You knocked right on my door.”

“You can’t prove anything.” Wheeljack rubbed his chin. “Hmmmm, let me think. You got here so fast, I haven’t had time to think of one.”

“And here I thought you were the smartest mech on Cybertron.”

“And you thought right. But I gotta figure out somethin’ that you don’t already know.”

Starscream smiled, his wings fluttering. He clasped his hands behind his back, holding the note between two fingers.

“I’m glad there’s someone here who can appreciate my intelligence.”

Wheeljack’s ears lit up. “Ah. I got it.” He leaped off the stool and pointed to his finials. “I got over a hundred different colors in these things.”

Starscream hummed. “That is a fun fact.”

“I could make it look like a rave in here.”

Wheeljack demonstrated by making his finials turn a series of different colors. Starscream covered his mouth to hide his laugh. Wheeljack went back to the normal blue and smiled under his mask.

Starscream cleared his throat and flicked his fluttering wings back into place. “Very nice,” he said. “You should have your own private party.”

“What kinda high grade do you like?”

Starscream smirked. “I don’t go to parties.”

Wheeljack turned back to his desk. “Aw, shame.”

Starscream swallowed the lump in his throat. He tucked the note back in his subspace and showed himself out. When he returned to his desk and sat down, the ache returned to his back. As soon as he got back to work he wished he’d told Wheeljack what kind of high grade he liked.

* * *

Starscream rolled over in bed, unable to sleep for the fifth night in a row. He considered getting out of bed and doing some work, but he didn’t really feel like moving. He also didn’t feel like trying to get back to sleep, nothing good ever came of sleep. He reached across the bed and grabbed the two little notes sitting on the bedside table. Crumpled now, but just as bright. For a few seconds he looked at them, wondering what prompted Wheeljack to write them.

Starscream let out a long vent and sat up, abandoning the notes. He rubbed his eyes and threw the blanket off his legs. Half blind, he shuffled to the kitchen and made himself a cube. He sat down at the kitchen table, grabbed a stray pile of datapads, and started doing some minor work. He signed a few documents and read over a few proposals.

When he moved one datapad aside and reached for the next, he had to pause.

Instead of the datapad, he grabbed the flimsy, bright blue sticky note stuck to the screen.

_Who knows when you'll see this one. But when ya do, come see me._

_If ya got the time._

_\- W_

Starscream bit his talon. He wondered how weird it would be if he showed up at Wheeljack’s house so early in the morning.

Starscream decided that would be too much. So he did the next best thing and wandered all the way down to the labs. It was something to do that wasn’t sleep or work. He meandered into Wheeljacks lab with no expectations, maybe he would seek out a due datapad or just look at all of the strange things Wheeljack put together.

The last thing Starscream expected was Wheeljack himself.

Starscream tilted his head at the familiar figure working under a singular light on the workbench in the corner. He approached slowly, unsure if what he was seeing was really Wheeljack, or just some sleepless delusion.

When he was close enough, Starscream leaned over slightly in an attempt to get a better look at the figure’s face.

“Wheeljack?”

Wheeljack flinched and whipped around. He furrowed his brow. “Starscream?”

“What are you doing down here?”

Wheeljack glanced back at his work. “I’m working,” he looked Starscream up and down. “What are you doing down here?”

Starscream uncurled his fist and glanced at the note. He held out the bright blue piece of paper. “I got your note.”

Wheeljack was silent for a few seconds. “Huh,” he retracted his mask and itched the side of his face. “Well,” he shrugged. “Guess this is as good a time as any.”

Wheeljack took a deep vent, got down off his stool, brushed himself off, cleared his throat and stepped forward so he right in front of Starscream.

“So uhhh, Starscream--” Wheeljack glanced away, rocking on his pedes. He cleared his throat again and put his mask back into place. “Man, this is a lot harder than I thought it would be.” He grumbled to himself.

Starscream squinted, but didn’t comment.

Wheeljack looked at him again, this time his eyes bright and to full attention. “Would you- maybe- someday, potentially wanna go...on a date? With me?”

Starscream’s wings sprung to full height. “You--” he glanced over his shoulder. “You want to go on a date with me?”

Wheeljack cringed. “Yes?”

Starscream blinked a few times. “Um…” He couldn’t even remember the last time he’d been on a date. He shrugged. “Sure. But you’re paying.”

Wheeljack’s eyes went wide. “Really?”

Starscream frowned. “This isn’t a prank is it?”

Wheeljack wagged his hand. “No no no. This is serious.”

Starscream smirked. “Good,” he grabbed a pen out of his subspace and wrote his number and a date on the back of the sticky note. “Then I’ll see you next week.”

Wheeljack accepted the sticky note and held it in both hands. “Yeah,” he said, smiling so wide his mask retracted. “I’ll see ya.”

Starscream turned on a heel just in time to hide the giddy smile on his face.

Maybe life had a little zest left after all.


End file.
